Nothing changes without a conversation, so what’s stopping us from speaking up?

“If you’re like most people then you shy away from difficult conversations. Especially when you have to talk about sensitive things like money, personal hygiene or “bad” behaviour. I have been paid eight times to tell people they smell bad – that’s right, eight different organisations have brought me in because they were unsure how to approach the conversation.

But with over 90% of people we surveyed experiencing behaviour at work they thought wasn’t right or appropriate, it seems counterproductive to business in this region for us to avoid these tough talks. Given the multicultural workforces driving the majority of the GCC’s economies, it’s little wonder that such nuanced or challenging conversations become even more difficult.

Telling somebody they are underperforming, asking for a raise, or sharing a difference in opinion with a co-worker may be necessary but it’s rarely fun. And because it’s not fun and it makes us feel emotions we’d prefer to avoid, we avoid the conversation. Cultural differences are a huge factor at play in our diverse workforces, too, making it even more complex to have these conversations…”